This was on the set of the iconic Michael Mann filmHeat.
It was a daunting task, and, truth be told, the notes were all over the place.
Hundreds of drugged-out Australian hippies called ferals were hired as extras.
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, Val Kilmer, 1996.New Line Cinema/ Courtesy/Everett Collection.
Brando confided in me that he hadnt read the script.
He said this allowed him to make more spontaneous acting choices.
Mind you, we were three months into production at that point.
Recent photo of (L-R): Matt Corman, Kilmer, and Corman’s wife, Dawn Urbont
I said I was sorry.
Val started to cool down.
But then, instead of getting madder, Val switched gears.
He took out a severely bent cigarette and performed a ridiculous theatrical display.
He started acting like a drunk trying to light his bent cigarette.
He crossed his eyes in mock drunken concentration.
He whispered in a weird Midwestern accent about wanting a pork chop.
Vals physicality and matinee idol looks only made the whole thing much funnier.
Val had a funny relationship to his funniness.
Val considered Brandos acting to be the aspirational pinnacle, the distillation of the seriousness he aspired to.
But the Brando I got to see in Australia was hamming it up more than anyone.
He had this looping nonequatorial speaking style.
He sometimes seemed spaced out or stoned or drunk.
Thats basically the way he talked conversationally, too.
Ideas trailed off or were finished slowly.
It was a kind of cowboys cadence, and after a while you got used to it.
He wasnt on anything; he just came at ideas from odd angles.
Thats what made Vals comic genius even more impressive.
